Inkjet printers and related inkjet devices have proven to be reliable, efficient, and generally cost effective means for the accurate delivery of precisely controlled amounts of ink and other related liquid materials onto various substrates such as, but not limited to, glass, paper, cloth, transparencies and related polymer films. For example, modern inkjet printers for consumer market digital printing on paper offer printing resolutions in excess of 2400 dots per inch (DPI), provide printing speeds greater than 60 sheets per minute, and deliver individual droplets of ink in a ‘drop-on-demand’ method that are often measured in picoliters. The relatively low costs, high print quality and generally vivid color output provided by these modern inkjet printers has made these printers among the most common digital printers in the consumer market.
A potential drawback of many inkjet printers is a limited usage rate and a concomitant high intervention rate associated with on-axis ink supplies. Specifically, on-axis ink supplies are necessarily limited in how much ink is available due to a trade-off with scan speed and other mechanical considerations of the printhead in the printer. A solution is to provide an off-axis ink supply that either augments or completely supplants the on-axis supply. Such an off-axis ink supply, often referred to as a continuous ink supply (CIS) system, facilitates both providing larger reservoirs of ink and replenishing ink supplies without a need to interrupt ongoing printer operations (e.g., a current print job). Unfortunately, incorporation of a CIS system in modern printers is generally not as simple as adding an off-axis supply and running tubes to the printhead. Consideration of numerous issues involving connections, locations, air management and maintenance, for example, with respect to the printer render incorporation of CIS systems a non-trivial problem.
Certain examples have other features that are one of in addition to and in lieu of the features illustrated in the above-referenced figures. These and other features are detailed below with reference to the preceding drawings.